Frédéric Basso

Embodied economics: how bodily information shapes the social coordination dynamics of decision-making

To date, experiments in economics are restricted to situations in which individuals are not influenced by the physical presence of other people. In such contexts, interactions remain at an abstract level, agents guessing what another person is thinking or is about to decide based on money exchange. Physical presence and bodily signals are therefore left out of the picture. However, in real life, social interactions (involving economic decisions or not) are not solely determined by a persons inference about someone elses state-of-mind. In this essay, we argue for embodied economics: an approach to neuroeconomics that takes into account how information provided by the entire body and its coordination dynamics influences the way we make economic decisions. Considering the role of embodiment in economics—movements, posture, sensitivity to mimicry and every kind of information the body conveys—makes sense. This is what we claim in this essay which, to some extent, constitutes a plea to consider bodily interactions between agents in social (neuro)economics.

Food behaviour and obesity: insights from decision neuroscience

Neuroimaging allows to estimate brain activity when individuals are doing something. The location and intensity of this estimated activity provides information on the dynamics and processes that guide choice behaviour and associated actions that should be considered a complement to behavioural studies. Decision neuroscience therefore sheds new light on whether the brain evaluates and compares alternatives when decisions are made, or if other processes are at stake. This work helped to demonstrate that the situations faced by individuals (risky, uncertain, delayed in time) do not all have the same (behavioural) complexity, and are not underlined by activity in the cerebral networks. Taking into account brain dynamics of people (suffering from obesity or not) when making food consumption decisions might allow for improved strategies in public health prevention, far from the rational choice theory promoted by neoclassical economics.

Smokers Are Suckers: Should Incongruous Metaphors Be Used in Public Health Prevention?

The article discusses public awareness campaigns designed to prevent smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke that evoke thoughts of sexual abuse of youths by adults. A specific pictorial image used in France in a campaign by the association Les Droits des Non Fumeurs, or Nonsmokers’ Rights, is discussed.

When organization meets emotions, does the socio-relational framework fail?

We suggest that the framework proposed by Vigil is useful in laboratory contexts but might come up short for in vivo social interactions. Emotions result from cost-benefits trade-offs but are not solely generated at the individual level to establish emotional social spheres. In organizational contexts, emotion expression can be a constitutive part of a professional activity, and observed sex differences might vanish.

Mesurer la force persuasive de l’activisme consumériste : une étude expérimentale de la théorie des cités appliquée aux food imitating products

Cet article s’intéresse aux mouvements d’activisme consumériste sous l’angle des critiques adressées aux entreprises dont les pratiques sont jugées irresponsables (ici les pratiques de food imitating products). L’objectif de cette recherche est de montrer que les différents modes de structuration des discours militants n’ont pas la même influence persuasive sur les attitudes des consommateurs vis-à-vis de l’entreprise incriminée. Nous défendons, tout d’abord, l’idée que les enjeux de persuasion et de justification de la critique (p.e. mobiliser des consommateurs à des actions de boycott) peuvent être analysés à l’aide du « modèle des cités » de Boltanski et Thévenot (1991). Nous rapportons, ensuite, les résultats d’une expérimentation dont le but est d’examiner l’impact de la configuration des discours militants (qualité, latéralité et logique de l’argumentation) sur le degré d’acceptation de la critique ainsi que sur les intentions déclarées des consommateurs de boycotter respectivement le produit et la marque mis en cause. Les résultats nous conduisent, enfin, à dégager une configuration de la critique militante à partir de laquelle nous esquissons des recommandations managériales pour les entreprises ciblées par les groupes d’activistes consuméristes.